Lincoln talked about the Octonauts birthday party that he wanted for weeks and weeks before he turned four. This was the first year that he had any interest in what I was planning, so I was extra motivated to make it awesome. We already had Octonauts Costumesfor Lincoln and Addie to wear, so that was perfect!

I went with a general "under the sea" decoration design, and added in Octonauts-specific themed items where possible. Since the show takes place in the ocean, I thought this was way easier than trying to create all completely Octonauts themed designs.

The first big project I tackled was making a Kelp Forest out of green balloons. Andrew and I blew up about 140 forest and lime green balloons, then tied them in strands on fishing line and hung them from the ceiling using push pins.

Since they were suspended in the air, whenever someone walked past, the balloons took on some ocean life properties and swayed gently back and forth. It was time consuming to blow up the balloons, but definitely a pretty effective decoration! Everyone thought it was cool.

I also used crepe paper streamers to add seaweed strands throughout the entry (where the Kelp Forest hung).

This is the view looking up when you entered the house.

I continued the seaweed strands throughout the party, surrounding some Jumbo Sea Life Creatures from Oriental Trading that were attached to the wall. Even with many young kids in attendance, we didn't have any seaweed meet its doom during the party!

I used my Silhouette Portrait to cut out tons of bubbles for the fish and sea creatures on the walls. I didn't end up having time to place all of them, but the concept was cute anyway.

When I have a party, I love using my fireplace for a birthday banner and themed decor. While I still love last year's Firetruck Party (because of the burning buildings), I also really loved how the DIY jellyfish, sea anemone "4", and simple banner turned out!

I used my Silhouette for the banner shapes and letters. The font (similar to Octonauts style) is Rosewood Std Fill and was downloaded for free here.

The seaweed decorations at the base of the fireplace were actually found at Hobby Lobby! They had some really neat floral picks that reminded me of sea life - and that was so much easier than trying to do more seaweed or sea urchin flowers myself.

The sea anemone 4 was a random idea that popped into my mind in the middle of the night while I was crafting like crazy for the party, and I just love it! Watch for a tutorial next week sometime.

I used our plush Octonaut pals to aid in the decor, too.

Overall, I was really pleased with how the decor looked - even without everything being overly Octonauts specific. I did throw in a few touches - like the logo on the banner.

My little Captain Barnacles and Peso, enjoying the aftermath of the party and more Octonauts toys than I am proud to admit we own.

The seaweed and urchin flower again, not surrounded by toys!

I don't have photos of all of the sea creatures, but they were scattered on the walls throughout the house.

The last big decoration that I made (and almost forgot to hang up!) was the Explore, Rescue, Protect banner. This is the big theme phrase of the show and I made it in the three main show colors with my Silhouette. It was a simple touch that added a lot of pizzazz!

In the last photo, you can see a sneak peek of our Medic Bag Favors. They were so much fun to create that another post will be dedicated just to those, very soon!

The party was two weeks ago and there are still several strands of Kelp Forest hanging up in my entryway. I'm taking it down one strand at a time so that I don't have mass hysteria on my hands when the kids notice it's disappeared!